Student Athlete Act of 2026

bac2therac · Mar 25, 2026

Sen. Tuberville’s ‘Student Athlete Act Of 2026’ Aims To Curtail Portal Chaos, Give Athletes Five Years To Play

Sen. Tommy Tuberville introduces the Student Athlete Act of 2026 to limit transfer portal movement, address NIL issues, and restore stability in college sports.

www.outkick.com

Like this plan. I had mentioned before about the idea of you can transfer once without penalty but the 2nd time you have to sit out, just like they did for years until a few years back ruined everything.

The bill provides that a student-athlete has five years of eligibility to play five years of intercollegiate athletics, regardless of injury or other events," the ‘Student Athelte Act’ proposes. "It also preserves the NCAA’s role in managing the transfer portal, while requiring that any athlete who transfers more than once sit out for the academic year in which he or she entered the transfer portal."

OK, that's going to be a highly-contested part, given that the legislation is hoping to force a student to sit out one season if they transfer for a second time. Obviously, this will lead to further lawsuits pertaining to the rights of an athlete, but it does make sense if you're trying to curtail the number of times an athlete changes uniforms. The kicker is that if agreed-upon, is that the student athlete would be signing away any chance at using past legislation against the NCAA if they were to transfer for a second time, and want to play immediately.

PhillyRU · Mar 25, 2026

Before wasn’t it that all transfers (aside from grad transfers ) had to sit out a year.

bac2therac · Mar 25, 2026

PhillyRU said:
Before wasn’t it that all transfers (aside from grad transfers ) had to sit out a year.

yes was a mandatory one year sit out with very small exceptions made...when the courts decided to let the players have everything they want we are going to have a hard time putting the genie back in the bottle. The NIL is bad on its own but its really the constant one year transfer portal that is the main issue.

PhillyRU · Mar 25, 2026

bac2therac said:
yes was a mandatory one year sit out with very small exceptions made...when the courts decided to let the players have everything they want we are going to have a hard time putting the genie back in the bottle. The NIL is bad on its own but its really the constant one year transfer portal that is the main issue.

Yea I really don’t care about the NIL aspect, and once advertising and television money became significant it really became unfair. I also wonder if that can be used as a motivating factor to keep players in one spot (like NCAA-sanctioned bonus on % of career earnings for four year players)

Erial_Lion · Mar 25, 2026

I mostly like it and think it would be a big step...one thing I'd change is to allow a player an additional "free" transfer any time their head coach leaves, as I don't think a player that comes to play for coach "x" should be penalized if that coach leaves after a year.

The other potential change is to protect players more from being "processed". I play my freshman year at school "x' and it's a horrible fit, so I transfer to school "y". If the coach at school "y" wants to cut me after my 2nd/3rd/4th year, it doesn't seem right to then be forced to sit when I move again if I want to keep playing the sport, since this transfer was outside of my control.

PSAL_Hoops · Mar 25, 2026

bac2therac said:
Sen. Tuberville’s ‘Student Athlete Act Of 2026’ Aims To Curtail Portal Chaos, Give Athletes Five Years To Play

Sen. Tommy Tuberville introduces the Student Athlete Act of 2026 to limit transfer portal movement, address NIL issues, and restore stability in college sports.

www.outkick.com

Like this plan. I had mentioned before about the idea of you can transfer once without penalty but the 2nd time you have to sit out, just like they did for years until a few years back ruined everything.

The bill provides that a student-athlete has five years of eligibility to play five years of intercollegiate athletics, regardless of injury or other events," the ‘Student Athelte Act’ proposes. "It also preserves the NCAA’s role in managing the transfer portal, while requiring that any athlete who transfers more than once sit out for the academic year in which he or she entered the transfer portal."

OK, that's going to be a highly-contested part, given that the legislation is hoping to force a student to sit out one season if they transfer for a second time. Obviously, this will lead to further lawsuits pertaining to the rights of an athlete, but it does make sense if you're trying to curtail the number of times an athlete changes uniforms. The kicker is that if agreed-upon, is that the student athlete would be signing away any chance at using past legislation against the NCAA if they were to transfer for a second time, and want to play immediately.

Would this mean multi-year NIL contracts?

Take Jordan Dercack for example. He transferred in to Rutgers and gets X based on becoming a starter. He doesn’t pan out as hoped. What’s his NIL offer for the next year? Does RU have to match the current year deal? Surpass it? If there’s no risk of him leaving why pay him anything? I didn’t read the whole article admittedly so maybe this is covered in there.

RUfan1977 · Mar 25, 2026

bac2therac said:
Sen. Tuberville’s ‘Student Athlete Act Of 2026’ Aims To Curtail Portal Chaos, Give Athletes Five Years To Play

Sen. Tommy Tuberville introduces the Student Athlete Act of 2026 to limit transfer portal movement, address NIL issues, and restore stability in college sports.

www.outkick.com

Like this plan. I had mentioned before about the idea of you can transfer once without penalty but the 2nd time you have to sit out, just like they did for years until a few years back ruined everything.

The bill provides that a student-athlete has five years of eligibility to play five years of intercollegiate athletics, regardless of injury or other events," the ‘Student Athelte Act’ proposes. "It also preserves the NCAA’s role in managing the transfer portal, while requiring that any athlete who transfers more than once sit out for the academic year in which he or she entered the transfer portal."

OK, that's going to be a highly-contested part, given that the legislation is hoping to force a student to sit out one season if they transfer for a second time. Obviously, this will lead to further lawsuits pertaining to the rights of an athlete, but it does make sense if you're trying to curtail the number of times an athlete changes uniforms. The kicker is that if agreed-upon, is that the student athlete would be signing away any chance at using past legislation against the NCAA if they were to transfer for a second time, and want to play immediately.

This legislation appears to greatly favor colleges that recruit transfers over freshmen. If you recruit a freshman, the “student “ athlete can leave and be immediately eligible at a new college and can leave for another school for more $. However, the college that recruits a player knows that if the player wants to leave they will have to sit out a year and therefore not get paid for a year. Not sure if the five years of eligibility must be consecutive. If the years of eligibility are consecutive, the transfer players would lose a year if they transfer again. That would kill second transfers as players would lose a year of getting paid.

BillyC80 · Mar 25, 2026

FIVE years of eligibility to play all 5 years? So the Covid year extension would become the new norm, I guess.

I would think that would de-emphasize high school recruiting even more.

Also, we may see some guys play 2 years, then transfer and play 2 more, then transfer, sit out and play again 6 years after graduating from high school, unless the eligibility only covers the first 5 years after high school.

My personal opinion is that the athletes should have a 5 year window to play 4 years, unless a waiver is granted due to injury.

Degaz-RU · Mar 25, 2026

Annual free agency in college sports is absurd and must be addressed. The athletes can either agree to the second-time transfer sit out rule, or there will have to be salary caps, and I'm sure they won't want the latter.

Fat Koko · Mar 25, 2026

PSAL_Hoops said:
Would this mean multi-year NIL contracts?

Take Jordan Dercack for example. He transferred in to Rutgers and gets X based on becoming a starter. He doesn’t pan out as hoped. What’s his NIL offer for the next year? Does RU have to match the current year deal? Surpass it? If there’s no risk of him leaving why pay him anything? I didn’t read the whole article admittedly so maybe this is covered in there.

Multiyear NIL contracts already exist. Duke QB Darian Mensah had an 18 month deal covering two seasons. Darian pocked $$, told Duke to f' off mid contract, and transferred to Miami. Duke sued Darian and they settled.

Most contracts are for a year and paid monthly, with performance bonuses tied to being named to an all-conference team.

This is what the Big Ten's NIL form reads, "The Institution, in its sole discretion, may agree to accept a buyout payment from a transferee school (on the Student-Athlete’s behalf) or the Student-Athlete or otherwise mutually agree to terminate the Agreement."

bac2therac · Mar 25, 2026

BillyC80 said:
FIVE years of eligibility to play all 5 years? So the Covid year extension would become the new norm, I guess.

I would think that would de-emphasize high school recruiting even more.

Also, we may see some guys play 2 years, then transfer and play 2 more, then transfer, sit out and play again 6 years after graduating from high school, unless the eligibility only covers the first 5 years after high school.

My personal opinion is that the athletes should have a 5 year window to play 4 years, unless a waiver is granted due to injury.

No they wont get 6 years

RU-ROCS · Mar 25, 2026

Without a salary cap, this is just a Band-Aid.

Sweet Pea's Corner · Mar 25, 2026

How much money do you think the Boozer brothers are making between their Samsung NIL deal and commercial and the State Farm commercial?

RUDiddy777 · Mar 25, 2026

RU-ROCS said:
Without a salary cap, this is just a Band-Aid.

I think bringing back the transfer rule is a big step - I’d almost prefer some kind of rule where they can declare their intent to enter the transfer portal and play the year for the original school, kind of like a player who doesn’t re-sign to enter the market. It also would allow the coach more time evaluate and recruit replacements that fit (or find NIL to retain), rather than scrambling to replace in a small window.

Not sure how you limit what players get paid since it’s technically not through the school. It’s like a pro athlete signing a shoe deal.

runova09 · Mar 25, 2026

RUDiddy777 said:
I think bringing back the transfer rule is a big step - I’d almost prefer some kind of rule where they can declare their intent to enter the transfer portal and play the year for the original school, kind of like a player who doesn’t re-sign to enter the market. It also would allow the coach more time evaluate and recruit replacements that fit (or find NIL to retain), rather than scrambling to replace in a small window.

Not sure how you limit what players get paid since it’s technically not through the school. It’s like a pro athlete signing a shoe deal.

Agree completely. The transfer rule would be a necessity to add some balance to this nil ecosystem.
One idea I've also thought about is having a limit or cap on the number of transfers a school could take over a set number of seasons. For example for basketball you could only take 4 total transfers over 3 seasons. This would force coaches to be more judicious in taking other transfer players.
I would also add juco exceptions where they don't count towards the cap. Coaches could still find juco guys to add to their roster. The rule would be for d1 transfers exclusively.

needmorecowbell · Mar 25, 2026

RU-ROCS said:
Without a salary cap, this is just a Band-Aid.

There will never be an NIL salary cap. Hopefully in the long run being in the NYC market will allow for some large partnerships for NIL and actually be a competitive advantage for Rutgers. It sounds like Zinn is starting to make inroads. The deals they are signing now will only get larger if they can improve the sports product.

NickRU714 · Mar 26, 2026

BillyC80 said:
FIVE years of eligibility to play all 5 years? So the Covid year extension would become the new norm, I guess.

I would think that would de-emphasize high school recruiting even more.

Also, we may see some guys play 2 years, then transfer and play 2 more, then transfer, sit out and play again 6 years after graduating from high school, unless the eligibility only covers the first 5 years after high school.

My personal opinion is that the athletes should have a 5 year window to play 4 years, unless a waiver is granted due to injury.

No more waivers.
5 years eligibility.
Play as many years as you do.

Waivers are why players have been around for 6-7 years.

RUDiddy777 · Mar 26, 2026

Sweet Pea's Corner said:
How much money do you think the Boozer brothers are making between their Samsung NIL deal and commercial and the State Farm commercial?

a lot. That’s probably a long term deal since they’ll go pro. Xavian Lee got 6 million from Samsung.

RUDiddy777 · Mar 26, 2026

NickRU714 said:
No more waivers.
5 years eligibility.
Play as many years as you do.

Waivers are why players have been around for 6-7 years.

Disagree with that. If someone misses 2 seasons from injuries and recovery (like Ryan Neill), I see no reason not to give some time back. But certainly some structure around it.

Fat Koko · Mar 26, 2026

needmorecowbell said:
There will never be an NIL salary cap. Hopefully in the long run being in the NYC market will allow for some large partnerships for NIL and actually be a competitive advantage for Rutgers. It sounds like Zinn is starting to make inroads. The deals they are signing now will only get larger if they can improve the sports product.

Rutgers has been in the New York City market since 1766.

Why would a sponsor or premium ticket purchaser look to Rutgers when the Jets, Giants, Knicks, Nets, Yankees, Mets, Devils, Rangers, and Islanders already offer superior sponsorship and premium ticket opportunities? On college sports, how do Rutgers, Piscataway, and Pike compete with St. John's, Madison Square Garden, and Pitino?

Simple answer - Rutgers is stuck in an no-win situation in big time sports.

Keli, like her predecessors, has an uphill battle getting more people interested in Rutgers sports. The geographic position between New York and Philly hurts more than it helps.

RUInsanityToo · Mar 26, 2026

Some ideas.....

Make all NIL transactions and payments completely transparent and published in a data base. Establish a threshold cap limit for players with luxury tax tiers.....similar to MLB and the NBA. Programs above the threshold then must pay out divided among programs below the threshold.

Reduce the # of overall scholies in basketball and then award compensatory scholies to key players who transfer out. Key players can be defined by some formula of Minutes per game and stats. While no exact, NFL does something similar with lost free agents and comp. draft picks.

Assess a transfer tax on the players as a percentage of the NIL they receive to transfer....require scholarships to be more formal contracts with this as a term. Transfer out will be taxed with funds going back to pay the departing school (either by player or new program). Percentage goes up each time you transfer....i.e..20%, 30%, 50%

Degaz-RU · Mar 26, 2026

RUInsanityToo said:
Some ideas.....

Make all NIL transactions and payments completely transparent and published in a data base. Establish a threshold cap limit for players with luxury tax tiers.....similar to MLB and the NBA. Programs above the threshold then must pay out divided among programs below the threshold.

Reduce the # of overall scholies in basketball and then award compensatory scholies to key players who transfer out. Key players can be defined by some formula of Minutes per game and stats. While no exact, NFL does something similar with lost free agents and comp. draft picks.

Assess a transfer tax on the players as a percentage of the NIL they receive to transfer....require scholarships to be more formal contracts with this as a term. Transfer out will be taxed with funds going back to pay the departing school (either by player or new program). Percentage goes up each time you transfer....i.e..20%, 30%, 50%

Paragraphs 1 and 3 would be clear violations of antitrust laws unless enacted as part of a federal statute (and even then, paragraph 3 would have Constitutional implications).

needmorecowbell · Mar 26, 2026

Fat Koko said:
Rutgers has been in the New York City market since 1766.

Why would a sponsor or premium ticket purchaser look to Rutgers when the Jets, Giants, Knicks, Nets, Yankees, Mets, Devils, Rangers, and Islanders already offer superior sponsorship and premium ticket opportunities? On college sports, how do Rutgers, Piscataway, and Pike compete with St. John's, Madison Square Garden, and Pitino?

Simple answer - Rutgers is stuck in an no-win situation in big time sports.

Keli, like her predecessors, has an uphill battle getting more people interested in Rutgers sports. The geographic position between New York and Philly hurts more than it helps.

There are two very simple answers. 1) Cost - Rutgers is offering sponsorship opportunities at a fraction of the cost the Giants, Yankees and other teams are. I know this for fact because the company I work for is a Rutgers Athletics sponsor and has explored opportunities with the major pro sports teams. 2) smaller issue but important- professional players and negative PR. There is way more good will and positivity when it comes to college athletes vs professionals at the c-suite level. I have heard this many times. Individual player PR concerns are much more prevalent in professional sports.

companies care about eye balls, demographics and return on investment. They care less about wins and losses. That’s for the fans.

NickRU714 · Mar 26, 2026

The sooner people realize "NIL" cant have a salary cap because it is private contracts between the player and a company the better.

Dylan's private employment contract with Fanatics needs to be public?

So Rutgers needs to pay a luxury tax because Dylan and Ace are being paid by Fanatics?

NickRU714 · Mar 26, 2026

Luxury Tax in MLB and NBA apply to TEAM PAYMENTS.

We already have a hard salary cap on University payments.
Approx $20.5m this past year

If Aaron Judge signs a $500m/year contract with NIKE - that's not part of the Luxury Tax calculations.

NightKnight · Mar 26, 2026

I would like:
5 years play 4 seasons
Grad transfer without sit out
1 transfer out of conference without delay
2nd transfer or transfer w/in conf 1 year sit

This would assist continuity and reduce poaching and increase imp

Fat Koko said:
Rutgers has been in the New York City market since 1766.

Why would a sponsor or premium ticket purchaser look to Rutgers when the Jets, Giants, Knicks, Nets, Yankees, Mets, Devils, Rangers, and Islanders already offer superior sponsorship and premium ticket opportunities? On college sports, how do Rutgers, Piscataway, and Pike compete with St. John's, Madison Square Garden, and Pitino?

Simple answer - Rutgers is stuck in an no-win situation in big time sports.

Keli, like her predecessors, has an uphill battle getting more people interested in Rutgers sports. The geographic position between New York and Philly hurts more than it helps.

You could look at the other way and say the Rutgers is lucky to be the only college football team in the heart of the largest media market -with the densest population- that also commands higher rates than any of our podunk competitors. It also has more corporations to buy sponsorships. The success of pro sports in they NYC area should encourage RU - not dissuade. Unlike our hayseed friends, Rutgers grads often find lucrative employment near their alma mater and so are in a better position to engage with their beloved teams....if only we could make our teams belovable.

Rutgers has every card in the deck. They just don't know how to play 'em.

High Quality H2O · Mar 26, 2026

Would love to see a 2 + 2 type scenario.
2 year contract then transfer or re-sign and become a 4 year player.

NickRU714 · Mar 26, 2026

Fat Koko said:
Rutgers has been in the New York City market since 1766.

Why would a sponsor or premium ticket purchaser look to Rutgers when the Jets, Giants, Knicks, Nets, Yankees, Mets, Devils, Rangers, and Islanders already offer superior sponsorship and premium ticket opportunities? On college sports, how do Rutgers, Piscataway, and Pike compete with St. John's, Madison Square Garden, and Pitino?

Simple answer - Rutgers is stuck in an no-win situation in big time sports.

Keli, like her predecessors, has an uphill battle getting more people interested in Rutgers sports. The geographic position between New York and Philly hurts more than it helps.

Not NIL related about relates to the broader "Woah is us. All these pro teams impact our ticket sales" nonsense.

Football: 40k x 7 = 280k
Basketball: 6k x 20 = 120k

400k individual people could sell out both venues without a single person attending multiple games.

Middlesex County population: 890k

Less than half of just Middlesex County is needed.

Professional sports teams arent stopping attendance.
Losing is.

NickRU714 · Mar 26, 2026

RUDiddy777 said:
Disagree with that. If someone misses 2 seasons from injuries and recovery (like Ryan Neill), I see no reason not to give some time back. But certainly some structure around it.

And the "structure around it" is where the problems begin.

Why stop at 2 seasons missed?

What does missing a season mean?
Have to miss the entire season? Zero snaps?
can play 1 game and save the year?
What if healthy but no snaps?

Guy get injured in game 1 and loses the entire year?

No waivers. No give backs.
5 years to play 5 or less seasons.
Its all these exceptions left to interpretation by the NCAA that causes the problems.

RUInsanityToo · Mar 27, 2026

Degaz-RU said:
Paragraphs 1 and 3 would be clear violations of antitrust laws unless enacted as part of a federal statute (and even then, paragraph 3 would have Constitutional implications).

I believe that the NCAA is lobbying for an anti-trust exemption. We'll see.

LotusAggressor_rivals · Mar 27, 2026

RUInsanityToo said:
I believe that the NCAA is lobbying for an anti-trust exemption. We'll see.

That is why. They want to return to the way it was instead of dealing with the present reality.

Student Athlete Act of 2026

Hall of Famer

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All-American

All-American

Heisman

Junior

Heisman

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Heisman

All-Conference

All-American

Heisman

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Heisman

All-Conference

All-Conference

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All-American